Play For All

Fri, February 27

Play For All

Over the past year or so with the emergence of pop-up restaurant it seems that eating out has become the new staying in. We seemingly flock to new restaurant openings in our masses in an attempt to restore the work life balance meeting up with friends and family over a common interest being food.

But under the now popular concept of the work/life balance how are those with children being catered for? Parents can often be forgotten when it comes to the experience of eating out and for many of them it becomes a work/parent/life balance. And of course those elements can be reordered as appropriate to suit the individual. Further to this there is a common perception or even misconception depending on what side of the fence you stand on that the life aspect becomes a disproportionately minute fraction in comparison with life pre-kids.

However it seems playtime may be in order for both parents and small people at the Fii Fun House restaurant in Argentina.

This playful interior space provides the perfect opportunity for both generations to enjoy an afternoon/evening out harmoniously. The use of timber throughout the space almost bridges the gap between the notion of exterior and interior spaces as well as having acoustic properties which will of course be helpful when that game of hide and seek or tag amongst the little ones and those mischievous adults gets a little intense.

In addition to the latter the large glass front adds to and even enhances the illusion of those lines between interior and exterior as the space appears to but seamlessly merge with the street with a little help from the fantastic natural light that pours in.

A sense of personality is given to the space in the form of bright geometric print upholstery in the midst of the wooden sheds which undeniably evoke a sense of nostalgia amongst those visiting as even for the adults the may hark back to memories of being as tiny as their tots and how enormous the shed must have seemed at the bottom of their gardens. Which brings us further to the way in which scale has been used in such an interesting way in this space. The use of large floor tiles not only manages to dwarf children in this context but the adults too creating a universal feeling of being child like.

It seems as if the Fii Fun House ultimately plays with the concept of how we as children ‘play house’ in terms of how at that point in our lives there nothing more is important than play and imagination. This space successfully encompasses the notion of fun and the comfort you get from being at home. But the question we have to perhaps ask is why there are not more spaces like this to accommodate for our changing interests and lifestyles and that innate feeling to be kids again.